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Kat's Review of My Legendary Girlfriend by Mike Gayle

Okay, my first foray into the world of Lad Lit came only in November 2011 with a self-published book that had me literally crying with laughter. The book was so good that I immediately started looking at other male `Lad Lit' authors and Mike Gayle was one that I had heard of and was incredibly popular.

With that in mind I decided to try his debut novel My Legendary Girlfriend that he first published back in 1998. Very early on we are introduced to Will Kelly, the only real `character' so to speak in the book. We get the lowdown on his truly depressing life, his awful flat and his agony over his ex-girlfriend.

Very early on I found myself disliking Will, all he seemed to do was moan about literally everything, and I had no sympathy for him whatsoever. I figured that this must be the lead up to where the character develops and the reader ends up seeing the turnaround. No such luck for me on that front.

The most frustrating thing is that nothing much happens. I get the impression this was meant to be a mans take on the Bridget Jones style kind of diary; however this is the furthest from that example in my opinion. Seeing as I was over halfway through the book and not feeling anything towards the character, I gave the book a break for a day and hoped I would return with a better feeling.

Sadly, when I returned and ploughed through (that's what it felt like), I finished it with an overwhelming feeling of disappointment. The writing was good, and there were certainly moments that made me chuckle, but that alone was not enough for me to actually feel like I enjoyed the book.

Overall, I can honestly say that this book was unmemorable at best and boring at worst. The writing and moments of humour are enough for me to try another Mike Gayle, after all as this was his debut novel and he now has a solid fan base I would like to give a newer book a try and hope that maybe it was just this particular book that wasn't my cup of tea.